The Memphis Flyer was founded on February 16, 1989, by Contemporary Media, Inc., publisher of Memphis magazine. With more than 222,000 regular readers, the Memphis Flyer is an urban newsweekly with a blend of hard news and features, and columns...

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"When you're on a major label, you have a responsibility to appeal to everybody. Sex sells, so get ready to pose; get ready to smile; get ready to show some skin," Kelley Deal says. "What I think is weird is if you’re on a major and you complain about that [responsibility], then you're full of shit because you know what that means."

More by Werner Trieschmann

Thornton teams up with J.D. Andrew and Michael Butler (and a lot of others on record and in the live show) for music that's a mixture of straight-ahead rock and country touchstones such as Johnny Cash and Buck Owens.

The Wolf harkens back to days when Shooter's daddy was making hits -- back then, the best prize a country star could receive was a radio hit and, with an army of songwriters supplying songs, the norm was to release two or more albums a year in hopes that one of them would have the golden single.

Although they live and work in Brooklyn, Mark Heyner and Josh Kolenik had to get out of the city to record as Small Black. Last year, the duo holed up at Kolenik's uncle's house on Long Island, recording a handful of fuzzed-around-the-edges pop songs away from the diversions of the city.

One reason the Oblivians' two Memphis reunion shows feel more impressive than most is that it doesn't feel like musicians trying desperately to reclaim former glory. It was more like conquering heroes returning home: they return to a scene they've helped make bigger.

"This will be the first time in 10 years we've all played together," Snider says of his upcoming performance with the Original Nervous Wrecks. "We'll play mostly stuff off [my] last three records, but we'll do a few oldies and probably take some requests."